Free Willie
by MichaellaD
Summary: In Chicago, Jane and Lisbon meet a 13-year-old pickpocket - with a gun. (CNC)
1. Jane and Lisbon arrest a pickpocket

**A/N: Okay, you guys probably know the drill by now, but if you don't, you'll find out what a CNC is on my profile.**

**Welcome to Due South, a show about a Mountie in Chicago. I did season 1 episode 2, Free Willie. Due South was never really known for its intricate plots, so this will be a two-chapter story.**

**Due South ****_was_**** known for its classic cars, epic car chases in said cars, making fun of Canadians and Americans, great banter, very strange ways of soving crimes, and a dog that's half wolf. If any of those things ring your chimes (or 'blow your skirt up', as my friend says), then this is a show you'll want to check out.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Due South or the Mentalist. I thank you kindly in advance for your reviews.**

* * *

_Gladys Fleming's apartment  
56 Alexander St., Chicago_

Jane and Lisbon stepped out a very rundown brick building. Lisbon pulled out her phone.

"Abbott. Lisbon here. We just finished talking to the girlfriend. Says she hasn't seen Joe in weeks. I think she's telling the truth." Pause. "Okay." She hung up. "Abbott says to go back to the hotel for the night."

Jane nodded. "Nice neighbourhood, huh?"

Lisbon shot him a surprised look then realized he was being sarcastic. "Very funny. You know, it wouldn't surprise me if we got back to the car and it was gone." Jane looked antsy. Lisbon grinned. "Don't worry, I'll protect you. Just hide behind me, no one will even notice you."

There was a commotion down the street and a little African-American boy carrying a purse barreled past them, almost knocking Jane over. A woman down the street was shouting at them. "Stop him! He's got my purse!"

Lisbon snapped into action, taking off down the alley the boy had disappeared into.

"I'll stay here," Jane called, then realized it was probably more dangerous to stand on the sidewalk than venture into a dark alley. Looking around cautiously, he edged in after Lisbon and the boy.

The boy was standing with his back to a wire fence, Lisbon about a foot away.

"I don't think you've thought this through," she was saying.

The boy was clearly on edge. "Back off. Just back off, okay?"

"Now I can't do that. I need you to hand me that purse-"

Jane stepped closer and the boy noticed him for the first time. He instantly pulled a gun out of his coat and pointed it at Lisbon. "I said _back off_!"

Lisbon didn't flinch. "Jane, don't come any closer."

"Yeah! You keep away from me or I'll pop him too!"

"No you won't. You're going to hand me that gun, you're going to return that purse, and you're going to apologize to that lady."

"Why?" the boy asked, eyes wide. "I've got the gun."

Jane spoke up. "Because you don't want to hurt anyone. And if you do, you'll just hurt yourself."

Lisbon held out her hand. They watched as a million emotions flicked across the boy's face, then he gave up and handed over the gun. "You know, you're lucky, cop. I could've shot you right through the heart!"

Jane walked up and put his hand on his shoulder. "I don't think so."

Lisbon held up the gun, a small smile on her lips. "That would require knowing how to take the safety off."

The man and the boy looked up in surprise.

* * *

They were halfway back to the hotel when Jane's phone started ringing. He looked at it and grinned. "It's Dennis."

"Pick it up!" said Lisbon.

"Hey Dennis. What's up?"

"I've learned to be suspicious when you aren't where you're supposed to be."

"Very clever of you."

"So where are you? Is Lisbon there?"

"Yes. See, we witnessed a crime outside Gladys Fleming's apartment and Lisbon ran down the perpetrator."

"What happened?"

"Oh, it was incredibly dangerous. Lisbon should be commended for her heroic actions."

"Jane!" hissed Lisbon.

"What _happened_?" asked Abbott again.

"A little boy grabbed a woman's purse."

There was dead silence. Then: "Jane, for the last time, what happened?"

"I'm telling you!" said Jane, hugely amused. "We caught a purse-snatcher. He had a gun, but Lisbon disarmed him and got him to return the purse and apologize to the victim. Then we let him go with a stern warning."

"Right. Put Lisbon on."

Jane handed his phone to Lisbon, grinning.

"This is Lisbon," she said.

"Lisbon, what happened?"

"Pretty much what Jane said, sir."

"In _Chicago's South Side_, you suddenly took it into your head to chase down a _pickpocket_?"

"It was automatic, sir. I didn't really think about it."

"I imagined as much. Why didn't you book him?"

"Jane convinced me not to." Her voice said that she was doubting her mental sanity. "But I turned to gun in to the local police."

"Excellent. I'm glad you've not taken complete leave of your senses. Can I expect you two back at the motel now?"

"Yes, sir," she said, blushing.

"Good."

* * *

They got the call at eleven o'clock at night.

"Hello, this is Lieutenant Ginch from the Chicago police. I understand you are the person who brought in a gun earlier?"

Lisbon looked at Jane, surprised. "Who is it?" he whispered.

"Yes, that's right," she said into the phone. She mouthed to Jane: "It's the station where we brought in Willie."

"Who did you say you got it from? The gun was used in a robbery. We ran it through ballistics and it matches a bullet we pulled out of a guy's arm from a robbery of a brokerage firm this afernoon."

* * *

Abbott knocked on their door at seven the next morning. "We have a problem," he anounced without preamble when Jane opened the door.

"What?" asked Jane, genuinely surprised for once.

"That kid, the maurauding villain you let off the hook last night. He was in a robbery yesterday."

"Yeah, we heard." Lisbon appeared behind Jane, looking sheepish.

"Well, he's not being cooperative. Says he didn't do it. But here's the kicker: He says he'll talk to you two."

Jane yawned. "What's the problem, then."

"The problem is that _I_ need you on the case you're actually here for. And Ginch insists _he_ needs you to find the bonds that were stolen yesterday."

Jane grinned. "Boy, we're in high demand. Why don't you just let us help out the local police?"

"You can't go around doing whatever you want."

"Meh. The one we're here for is so easy a baby could solve it. And you know it, too, or you wouldn't be here right now."

"But on the other hand," Abbott continued as if Jane hadn't spoken, "Ginch practically begged me to lend him you guys. So if you want to do it, maybe to redeem yourselves after letting him get away the first time, I'll give you until we wrap up the Joe Lorne case."

Lisbon looked at Jane, then back at Abbott. "Okay."

* * *

_Chicago police department  
Station #6_

Jane and Lisbon were reviewing the security footage at the station with a helpful Detective Markowitz.

"They went in at 4:38, they're gone by 4:41. Three minutes. Must've been professionals."

"Or quick on their feet," added Jane unhelpfully.

All three watched as the robbers stuck a gun in the ribs of a short man with glasses and dragged him over to the vault.

"That's Craig Hammond," said Markowitz, pointing. "He's the only one there who knew how to open the vault."

"They'd scouted the place," concluded Lisbon. Markowitz nodded.

Onscreen, one of the robbers reached for one of the many folders and stuffed it into the bag on his hip.

"Just the bonds," said Jane. "This was planned down to the last detail."

"We can't identify them, of course, since they wore monkey suits and Balaclavas, but the shortest one is about 5'4". Hammond says it could have been a kid."

"It wasn't Willie," said Jane with confidence.

* * *

Willie was sitting in interrogation with his lawyer beside him. She had no apparent interest in the boy, flipping through an unrelated file and not even looking up as Jane and Lisbon walked in.

Lisbon dropped Willie's file on the table. "Quite the record you've got there, Willie. Seven arrests, first at age ten; petty theft, theft, more theft..."

"I have to support my mother."

Lisbon laid her hand out flat on the table. "You don't have a mother."

The lawyer pointed her pen at Lisbon, all the while reading the paper in front of her. "He also has no conviction, so you shouldn't even have that list."

Lisbon kept her gaze on Willie. "We checked the gun. The only fingerprints we found were yours."

"I tried telling those other cops! I _found_ it somewhere."

The lawyer looked over at him. "You don't have to tell them anything."

Lisbon looked solemn. "True, but it would be in your best interests. If you didn't do it, then there's no reason to arrest you."

The lawyer snorted. "Not from around here, huh."

"Tell us what happened yesterday," said Jane. "Where did you find that gun?"

"Someplace," said Willie defiantly.

"Fine. _How_ did you find it?"

"I was on the way home from school." Lisbon raised her eyebrows sceptically. "Okay, the track. And I see this woman come out of the building on Michigan avenue. Anyway, she goes down this alley, and there's no one around. Her bag's just hanging there. I grabbed it and took off. I get away, find the gun in the bag. End of story."

"Can you describe this woman?" asked Lisbon.

Willie grinned. "Depends. Will you get me outta here?"

"I'll see what I can do," said Lisbon, unimpressed.

* * *

"There. That's close enough." Willie pointed at the sketch.

Jane grinned. "That's Eva Longori!"

Lisbon looked disgustedly at Willie. "Nice try."

"Hey! I saw her for _two seconds_. You try to draw one of these things!"

"I'll run it anyway." Markowitz picked it up.

"So I get out now?" asked Willie hopefully.

"Not yet. We need you to go show us where you found that purse."

"Oh yeah," agreed Willie amiably.

The instant his feet hit the sidewalk outside the station he was off and running. Lisbon was right behind him and she collared him before he'd gone half a block.

"I just wanted to find my sister, tell her I wouldn't be in school for a while!"

Lisbon kept a tight grip on his shirt. "You've got one more chance, Willie."

"Okay, okay. You want evidence, I'll show you lots of evidence!"

* * *

Willie led them into a garbage-strewn alleyway. "I dropped it here somewhere."

Lisbon looked around at the stinking piles surrounding her and sighed. Jane put his arm around her shoulders. "Relax, now. You won't have to look through all this garbage. If you just think about it, you'll figure out where it is."

Lisbon shrugged out of his grasp irritably. "I'm sorry, but unlike you I don't have a telekinetic link with inanimate objects."

Jane tsked at her, then walked off around the corner of an old brick building.

"Jane! Get back here! Where are you going?" She gave up and went after him, Willie following behind.

She found him talking to a repellently ugly bag lady sitting on the ground. Actually she rounded the corner and just about fell over them.

"That's it!" cried Willie, pointing at the bag the old woman was clutching to her chest.

"You are..." asked Lisbon.

"Celeste," said the creature with great pride, holding her hand out to Jane to be kissed. Bowing over her like a courtier, Jane took her hand and brushed it briefly with his lips.

"That briefcase you're holding," he said, having got the preliminaries out of the way, "is a piece of evidence in a criminal investigation. We'd be most appreciative if you would let us have it."

Her nose held high in the air, she held out her hand again, palm up this time. "50$."

Jane tapped his finger against his lips. "Unfortunately, all I have on me is a five." He pulled the bill from his pocket and held it invitingly in front of her. She snatched it from his fingers and gave him the bag. "Thank you."

She waved her hand at him. A queen's dismissal.

Back around the corner, Lisbon opened the bag, Willie nodding proudly at her side. The envelope with the bonds was still inside. Lisbon couldn't believe her luck. She undid the string and pulled out the contents - a sheaf of blank paper.

* * *

_56 Petawawa St., #36  
Willie's apartment_

Willie and Jane stood to the side as Lisbon contucted a thorough search of the place.

"You won't find the bonds here, Lisbon," said Jane. She ignored him.

"I didn't _take_ those bonds!" complained Willie sullenly. "I don't even know what a bond _is_."

"Was there anything else inside the bag?" asked Jane. "Bonds are certificates with seals on them," he clarified.

"On my sister's life. And I _do_ have a sister."

Jane grinned at him. Willie grinned back, after a moment.

Lisbon slammed the last drawer shut with a bang. "Nothing in here."

"I told you that at the start," said Jane patronizingly.

"So, you two go home, get some rest, and we'll start fresh in the morning." Willie beamed at them as he ushered them out the door.

Lisbon rolled her eyes. "Nice try. You're staying with us. The nice lieutenant'll have our heads if you take off on us."

Jane stayed back a moment to whisper to Willie. "Don't mind her. She just gets tense when she doesn't have her own bed to sleep on."

* * *

Jane watched with amusement the next morning as Willie, under Lisbon's strict supervision, made up his bed (complaining loudly that that was the maid's job) and tidied up the bathroom after using it. Apparently she'd hadn't lost her touch when it came to ordering young boys around. All that practise with her brothers had made her an immovable object, impervious to any and all complaints.

"Finally!" he muttered when they'd finished the breakfast room service had brought up. "Now what? Are you going to search my place again?"

"No. We're going to interview Hammond." Her phone rang as she was driving. She put it on speakerphone.

"We got a match on that sketch the kid drew up," said Markowitz. "Carol Morgan. Armed robbery, thrre arrests, one conviction, all in Florida."

"Long way to come to steal blank paper," said Jane.

"Mmm," agreed Lisbon. She pulled over in front of Lloyd and Little Brokerage. "You're going to have to stay here," she said, eyeing Willie in the rearview mirror. Jane looked a little surprised.

"Absolutely. I'll be completely fine," Willie assured them.

"Right," agreed Lisbon, coming around to his door. She pulled out her handcuffs and cuffed him to the door handle.

"Hey!" Lisbon ignored him, locking the car. Willie slumped back in the seat. "Darn."

"Why five o'clock?" asked Jane in the elevator.

"What?"

"Why would they pick the busiest time of the day to stage a robbery?"

"So you can disappear into the crowd."

"Sure, but think of all the potential witnesses, the difficulty in making a getaway..."

The elevator beeped, they were at their floor. They found Hammond's office without too much trouble. Lisbon pulled out the dummy bonds, back in their envelope.

"Do you recognize these, Mr. Hammond?"

"This could be it, but it's hard to say. Every financial firm in the city uses these envelopes." He craned his neck looking at Jane, who had just ducked under the crime scene tape and was inspecting the vault.

"Is it possible that you made a mistake, filed the wrong envelope?"

Hammond dragged his attention partially back to Lisbon. "Don't I wish. The auditors have combed this place from top to bottom. If the bonds were still here, they'd have found them." He pointed at Jane, who was now licking his finger and holding it up in the air like he was testing the wind. "Is he...?"

"Observing," said Lisbon. "He's very thorough."

Hammond kept glancing back as if he expected Jane to explode at any minute. "So I see."

Jane stepped out of the vault. "Do you have any explanation for why that envelope is filled with blank paper?"

"Well, perhaps the thief handed the bonds off to an accomplice. Or, maybe the bag you found wasn't even hers."

Jane nodded. "It's a possiblity. Thanks for your help." They shook hands.

"Anything I can do," Hammond said, a thin smile on his lips.

* * *

"He's in on it," Lisbon asserted as soon as they were in the elevator.

"Yes."

"I know. How do you know?"

"Same way you do."

"Cop instinct."

"Oh."

"What do you mean, 'oh'? How do you know? You stuck a wet finger in the air, I suppose that solved the entire case?"

"No, no. The only thing that told me was that they have a broken cooling vent."

Lisbon snorted, trying not to grin. "So how did you figure it out?"

"He referred to the thief as 'her'."

Lisbon stared at him for a moment, then her brow cleared. "And in his statement, he said they were all male."

Jane grinned. "Bingo!"

She glared at him. "Don't patronize me!" The elevator beeped and they stepped out.

"The robbery was a cover. The thieves never had the bonds. Hammond stole them," concluded Jane.

"Now we just need to figure out how he got them out of the office, and where they are now."

"Uh-huh."


	2. Jane and Lisbon find the bonds

Willie grabbed a pen from the back seat and dismantled it in two seconds. He took the metal piece and began trying to pick the cuffs. He had just succeeded when a rough-looking man walked up and tried the door. Seeing that it was locked, he took his elbow and tried to smash the window. Since Lisbon's car wasn't bulletproof, a spiderweb of cracks appeared.

Willie dove for the front seat and began frantically hotwiring the car. He got the engine going just as the thug broke through the driver's window.

As Lisbon and Jane stepped into the lobby, they heard gunshots. Lisbon sprinted for the revolving doors.

"Sure, run _toward_ the guns," muttered Jane, following.

They were just in time to see Willie peel off in their car, backwards, with the thug and his two friends firing at Willie. The three thieves, seeing the reinforcements, dove for their own car and gunned it out of there before Lisbon could reach them. They disappeared down an alley, Lisbon following on foot. She had just given up on that, gasping, when a yellow taxicab pulled up beside her.

"Hop in!" said Jane.

"Follow that car!" she ordered the taxi driver, showing her badge. He nodded.

The two cars ahead were strewing garbage cans all over but the taxi avoided them with ease. "What do I do if they run a red light?" he asked calmly, taking a narrow corner on two wheels.

"Follow them!" said Jane excitably. "We can fix your ticket!"

Lisbon smacked him. "We can _not_."

They were headed for a rounabout around a park. The first two cars went right, the taxi swerved left.

"What are you doing?" yelled Lisbon.

"I'm gonna cut them off!" the taxi driver called back.

Meanwhile, Willie tried to take a sharp corner and skidded out, stalling. He tried frantically to spark the wires together, but they weren't catching.

Jane and Lisbon watched in dread as Carol Morgan's car bore down on Willie. The taxi driver, however, had a plan. He gunned the taxi, fishtailing it in front if the thieves at the last moment. They slammed on the brakes and skidded around the taxi, coming to a halt with a jerk that left them all with whiplash. Lisbon leapt out of the taxi, gun at the ready, but the car was already disappearing around a corner. She holstered her gun angrily and turned back to her car. The driver's side door was wide open. Willie had disappeared.

"Damn!" she ejaculated.

The taxi driver was beaming. "Well, that was the most fun I've had in a while!" he pronounced.

* * *

"Then the taxi fishtailed in front of the thieves... It was amazing." Jane was winding down his description of the morning's events.

"Sounds like it," agreed Ginch. "Why were they after Willie again?"

"We're not sure, but it's probably because he could identify the ringleader."

"How _about_ the witness, our only lead? What happened to him?"

"He ran away," admitted Lisbon.

"Come on, Lisbon," said Jane. "You've got to sell yourself a little better than that. Say that you are 'tempoarily unaware of his whereabouts' or that you have 'non-permanently misplaced him'."

She glared at him. "Misplaced a witness? Do you even hear yourself?"

Markowitz leaned into Ginch's office. "We were too late. Hammond's gone."

Ginch leaned back. "One disapointment after another. Perhaps if you had called in before you took off by yourselves... But maybe that's not how the FBI does these things." His voice dripped with sarcasm.

Lisbon studied her shoes. Her phone picked that moment to go off. "I'm sorry," she apologized after looking at the call display. "It's my boss. I really should take it."

"By all means."

"I'll go with her," said Jane.

Ginch was unimpressed. "Of course! Backup is always necessary, even when answering your phone. Glad you're learning your lesson."

Jane caught up to Lisbon outside the office. "Yes, sir," Lisbon was saying. She hung up.

"What'd he say?"

"They got the guy. They're flying back tonight. He wants us at the airport at five."

Jane looked startled. "Five o'clock!"

Lisbon gave him an odd look. "Yeah. We'll have to leave early 'cause it's rush hour."

"It had nothing to do with rush hour!"

"What are you talking about?" asked Lisbon irritably.

Jane pointed at her. "Where's that security tape."

In a few moments they were established in Markowitz's office, fastforwarding to 4:45 on the day of the robbery.

"Hammond couldn't take the bonds out himself, and he couldn't risk them being missed. They had to stay in the vault until just before the robbery."

"He could have let the robbers take the bonds, since he was in on it," pointed out Lisbon.

"You know, Lisbon, despite the adage, you will rarely find honour among thieves. If he had let them take the bonds, he'd have to trust that he'd get his share."

"And they look so trustworthy," agreed Lisbon.

"Mmm. So he had to get the money out just before the robbery, and without drawing attention." He froze the screen and pointed at a white-uniformed man. "There."

"The courrier!" exclaimed Lisbon. "That is so stupid!"

Jane nodded. "So simple."

"Who'd he send them to?"

"Probably a fake address. No way to trace it."

"So the package would end back up at the depot."

Jane nodded. Lisbon headed for the door at a trot. "Come on! Let's go!"

* * *

_WorldWideCourriers offices  
1543 Moss Dr._

Hammond took his place in line, glancing at his watch. He pulled out his wallet and took out his receipt. A gun pressed into his back.

"My cut, remember?" threatened Carol. "I'll take that." She grabbed the receipt.

There was one person in line in front of them, and she was holding up the whole proceedure.

"It's your package," the bored cleck was saying.

"This isn't butcher's paper! My sister always uses butcher's paper."

"It's your package," he repeated.

"Are you sure this is the right package? I don't think it's my package."

Carol walked up to her. "Take the package, lady."

The woman looked at her, taken aback, then picked up the package. Carol turned to the clerk.

"How can I help you?" he asked. She handed him the receipt. He left for a few moments and came back with the bonds. "Sign, please," he said, holding out the bonds and a pen.

Hammond elbowed the thief standing right behind him, leaped over the desk in an impressive show of physical ability, grabbed the bonds and disappeared into the back room, all three robbers in hot pursuit. Jane and Lisbon screeched up outside at that precise moment.

"Which way did they go?" yelled Lisbon over the screaming as she ran in.

The stunned cleck pointed to the open door behind the counter. Lisbon jumped over the desk like a pole vaulter. Jane went around and opened the little gate at the side.

The rows of packages were a giant labyrinth. The storage room was full of running men and women carrying guns, panting, knocking over boxes, and miraculously staying mostly out of each other's way.

Lisbon was chasing one of the men when a small loader carrying boxes pulled out in front of them. Nothing daunted, she lowered her shoulder and put both of them through the load, knocking the boxes far and wide. She slapped her handcuffs on him and left him there, completely stunned.

Carol, just a few rows away, had found Hammond. She grabbed the bonds and buried him under a pile of boxes. She grinned, then climbed a handy stepladder and stepped onto the upper shelves.

The other male robber had found Lisbon, but instead of pointing his gun at her had just grabbed her from behind. Jane, who had so far been doing an excellent job of hiding from everyone, picked up a crowbar and whacked the guy on the back. (He'd been aiming for the head, but the guy moved at the wrong moment.) The guy let go of Lisbon, giving her the chance flatten him. She cursed when she realized she no longer had her handcuffs. Jane, always prepared in an emergency, pulled some twine off a nearby box and tied the guy's hands together.

Jane and Lisbon, by unspoken agreement, split up. Carol was sprinting for the exit, her head inches from the ceiling, when she tripped and fell and lost her grip on the bonds, which floated to the floor. Lisbon rounded the corner, her gun at the ready. Carol quietly climbed down the other side of the shelf. Seeing no one around, Lisbon walked up to the bonds. She had just bent down to pick them up when Carol spoke behind her.

"Don't move."

* * *

Abbott checked his watch. "It's 5:10," he told Cho. "Should I be worried that they're not here yet?"

Cho looked at him stoically. "Yes."

Abbott nodded. I'll get Fischer and Wiley, warn them we're not leaving yet. Get on the phone with Ginch. Find out where they are."

Cho hung up five minutes later. "No sign of them, but they just got a report of guns fired at a courrier company and Jane and Lisbon were headed in that direction last anyone saw of them."

"Good enough. What's the address?"

* * *

Lisbon very carefully lowered her gun to the floor. Carol put her gun to Lisbon's neck and pulled her to her feet. Jane appeared in front of them at that moment. He held out his hands, showing he had no weapon.

"Are you all right, Lisbon?" he asked calmly, walking forward.

"Never better, Jane."

"Stop in your tracks, right there," Carol shrieked.

"Are you sure you've thought this through?" he asked her conversationally.

"Bend down slowly and pick up the bonds," she ordered, ignoring his last question.

"I don't think you want me to do that."

"Pick... them... up," she growled, tightening her hold on Lisbon's shoulder.

He raised his hands in a calming gesture. "Okay. But it's a mistake." He knelt down and collected the first two papers. "You see, a bond is more than just a bank note." He gathered up a few more. "It's an instrument of trust between two people. A promise, that must be honoured." He picked up the last few and organized them into a tidy pile. He stood up. "So you see, now that I have them in my hands, I am honour-bound _not_ to give them to you."

Lisbon's eyes opened wide. "Give her the bonds, Jane."

"I can't do that, Lisbon."

"You've got three seconds, then I shoot her," said Carol menacingly. "One..."

Jane looked deep into Lisbon's eyes. "I'm sorry, Lisbon."

"What do you mean, 'sorry'?" Lisbon voice was pitched rather higher than normal.

"Two..."

"_Give her the bonds_!"

"Can't do that. I'm walking out of here with them." He turned and walked away.

"That's it! She's dead!" screamed Carol.

"Sorry to hear that," he called, waving the bonds in a gesture of farewell.

"_JANE_!"

"_FREEZE_!" Carol lifted her gun off Lisbon's neck and fired at Jane, who ducked around the corner.

Lisbon grabbed her arm and wrestled the gun away from her. She got Carol's arms behind her back just as Abbott, Cho, and Fischer showed up.

"About time," growled Lisbon, still on edge. "Do you have any handcuffs?"

Fischer tossed her her pair. Lisbon cuffed Carol. "Where's Jane?" she snapped.

"Right here!" He handed the bonds to Abbott. "We caught the bad guys!"

She stormed up to him and punched his arm. "What were you thinking?"

"Hey! It worked, right?"

"I don't care! I don't want you going around suggesting people shoot me!"

Abbott, Fischer, and Cho discreetly faded away.

"I didn't _want_ to, Lisbon, but I had to enrage her."

"You _wanted_ to _enrage_ the person who had a _gun_ to my neck? That was your strategy?"

They started walking.

"I knew that if I kept at it, eventually I'd draw her attention to me, and you'd get your shot. And I knew you'd trust me."

Lisbon glared at him. "But I didn't."

"Yes you did."

"No I didn't."

Jane patted her shoulder. "Of course you did. Maybe you just weren't fully aware of it."

"I was fully aware of my feelings towards you in that moment, Jane."

"Well, if you didn't know what I was planning, why'd you play along?"

"I wasn't playing along! I was fighting for my life!"

"Oh. Well, my mistake."

"Mistake? You could have gotten me killed!"

"No, no. I'd never allow that."

They stopped walking. Jane put his hands on her shoulders. "I care about you for too much." He pulled her close and kissed her. Lisbon swatted him away after a few moments.

"Don't think you're off the hook yet," she warned, walking out. Jane followed, grinning. He'd seen the tiny smile on the corners of her mouth.

* * *

"You'll be happy to know," said Abbott at the airport, "that Willie showed up at the station shortly after you took off. Apparently you told him to head there if he ever got lost?"

Lisbon looked up.

"Exactly," said Jane, grinning.

"Anyway, he wanted to talk to you before you left. Give him a call."

Jane pulled out his phone.

"Hey Willie!"

"Hey Jane."

"I hear you're at the station right now."

"Yeah, but looks like they won't need me to testify after all." There was a few moments of silence. "Hey, tell your girlfriend she won't get in trouble, since I came back."

Jane smiled. "Yeah, I'll tell her."

"You guys are okay, for cops, you know."

"Thanks, Willie."

"That Ginch guy, though. I won 100$ off him, playing poker."

"Glad to know my lessons last night didn't go to waste."

"Yeah. Well, I gotta go. Bye."

"Bye, Willie."

* * *

"Ginch was very impressed with your accomplishments," said Abbott as they heard their boarding call. "He commended both of you for solving the case so quickly and asked that neither one of you came near his station again."

Jane grinned. Lisbon sighed.

"So what happened?" asked Wiley excitedly.

"Oh, it was amazing," began Jane as they filed onto the tarmac. "I had it figured out from the beginning, of course..."

Lisbon rolled her eyes.

* * *

**A/N: I hope you had as much fun reading it as I had writing it! You can watch the original at youtube com/watch?v=ZVJrd0yLwvI**


End file.
